News
/ Paul's Blog

Second
Anniversary of Sept 11.

My
partner is the Sept 11 project has written a new
introduction to the materials we've posted and catches up
with some of the events of the past year, obviously including
the war in Iraq. Since many people are still clueless bears
repeating that THERE IS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN IRAQ AND SEPT 11.
"There were fifteen Saudi Arabians, two Emiratis, one
Lebanese, and leading them all, an Egyptian, Muhammad Atta"
(from Benjamin and Simon, The Age of Sacred Terror).

Al
Qaida might well be going into Iraq now to take on America, but
that is caused by the War in Iraq and was not something going on
earlier. Meanwhile, Osama's still around and might have even
been developing a more sophisticated Weapons of Mass Destruction
program than Iraq allegedly had (remember, the reason we went
into Iraq??). Unfortunately, Osama bin
Forgotten...

Bush really
dropped the ball by not trying to get bin Laden and
finish the job. Yes, some al Quida folks have been
captured, but bin Laden is the mastermind and his
organization has still carried out many attacks this
summer. That means its members are gaining operational
experience, which allows the organization to replace
lost personnel. The bin Laden page
has more. For the readers who don't click over,
you should still be aware of this:

From Views of a Changing World 2003:
War With Iraq Further Divides Global Publics(Pew
Research Center, Global Attitudes Project) The Pew Report
comments that "The bottom has fallen out of
support for America" following the war on Iraq:
"the war in Iraq “widened the rift between
Americans and Western Europeans, further inflamed the
Muslim world, softened support for the war on
terrorism, and significantly weakened global support
for the pillars of the post-World War II era – the
U.N. and the North Atlantic alliance”

Six months after it was established to protect the nation from terrorism, the Department of Homeland Security is hobbled by money woes, disorganization, turf battles and unsteady support from the White House, and has made only halting progress toward its goals, according to administration officials and independent experts.

A confident Bush stood in the Rose Garden less than a month ago, saying, "Conditions in most of Iraq are growing more peaceful," boasting of "dismantling the al Qaeda operation" and pronouncing "pretty good progress" toward Middle East peace and a Palestinian state within two years.

One presidential adviser said the suicide attacks hours apart in Iraq and Israel, which undermined the two anchors of Bush's ambitious effort to transform the Middle East, made Tuesday "by far the worst political day for Bush since 9/11."

The television images from Iraq tell of a conflict that is not officially a war anymore, but sure feels like one to the men and women who come here for Bar Games Night or to tear through $7 steak dinners. The almost daily reports of another soldier, or two, or three, being killed in Iraq bring back bad memories of the war these veterans fought, the one in Vietnam that eventually was not an official war, either, but felt like one just the same.

The veterans ordering Budweisers across the bar from Farrell almost all point to a single statement that irked them above all others: They wish President Bush had never said the war was over, especially before Saddam Hussein is captured or killed. But their concerns do not stop there. They worry that U.S. troops have been asked to stay abroad too long, that the United States is ill-prepared to counter guerrilla tactics in Iraq, and that the military will be "bogged down" in Iraq for years to come without help from other nations.
(Washington Post, 7 Sept 2003, A03)

I should say I
don't believe it, and most of the people I've talked
also don't believe it. But it is interesting that
there hasn't been an explanation of what happened
(except we're assured it wasn't terrorism). bin
Laden's business is construction, especially large
projects, be they public works, ports, or palaces the
size of a city. A number of terrorists were enrolled
in engineering programs. This blackout might not have
been them, but future ones could be - it's certainly
the kind of they they would like to do. Story from
Worldnetdaily.com, one of the few sites to speculate
on whether the DC sniper
was a terrorist.

It's not just a
partisan issue, with Democrats harping on Bush. Dean
does a good job discussing the importance of the
claims that were made. In case you forgot exactly how
specific the administration was about its claims, Dean
offers a good review. (Findlaw.com)

Since taking office, Ashcroft has drawn the left's ire for the reach of the government's war on terrorism; for overruling local prosecutors in death penalty cases; for altering the government's decades-old interpretation of the Second Amendment's right to bear arms; and for overseeing continued raids on facilities that provide marijuana for medical purposes. Now some conservatives, concerned that the war on terrorism has eroded civil liberties, are joining the criticism of Ashcroft's policies for the first time.